


Qunari Soldier

by scurvaliciousbay



Series: Inquisitor!Kass and Companion!Mel [11]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Ficlet, Other, Qunari, Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 15:02:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16875063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scurvaliciousbay/pseuds/scurvaliciousbay
Summary: Kassaran comes across the toy qunari soldier.





	Qunari Soldier

They find the old toy on the body of a Tal-Vashoth mercenary. He is young, his rebellion form the Qun short lived and she insists on saluting his soul off to the great Void. She is not sure what he believed, if he followed the Maker or still held the Qun close to his heart, but she wants to see his soul properly seen away from his body. 

She strips his body and finds the toy soldier pressed against his chest in between his undershirt and plates. It is sweat soaked and stinks of the man beneath her but it is stitched in a familiar fashion. She knows the Tamassran who made this doll, she knows who raised this man. This Sten, this Tal-Vashoth. 

She paints his face and body with Vitaar and sings a hymn that the old Tamassran favored. It is equal parts a story and a lullaby, used to soothe the weary soul. 

It is unique, being Tal-Vashoth. The Qun shapes your life even when you depart from it. It shapes how you see the world, how you approach people, how you  _define_  people, whether you accept its tutelage or reject it outright. 

All Kass wanted was freedom. Freedom to choose and to love and to have her daughter, to see the Saarebas freed from their chains. She never found purpose in torture and mistreatment. The Qun…is misguided, and being Tal-Vashoth means that you have accepted that philosophy in some part. 

She does not know why this young man left, she does not know the name he chose for himself, if he chose one. She does not know who he is, who he  _wanted_  to be, separate from the Qun. And he will never have that chance to be that person now. 

She sits with the body until nightfall, as is custom, then buries it along a river bank, where his soul can drift along with the flow of water. She holds the old stitched doll close to her chest and bows her head in farewell to the young man the world never got to know. 

“ _Goodbye, child, may your soul rest easy. You do have purpose, even when you stumble,”_ she murmurs. She feels Bull’s eyes on her back and she turns back to him, a Tal-Vashoth in everything but having the actual tether cut. But if he is to be free, he must cut that tether himself. 

“Paths untraveled are still paths, purpose can be defined by yourself,” she says and he is quiet for the rest of the evening. 

She holds the toy and prays for the souls of the nameless Tal-Vashoth.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
